I play with moderate regularity and have actually never used Dwarf Therapist. (I still regularly consult the wiki though.) The turning point for me that made th

I play with moderate regularity and have actually never used Dwarf Therapist. (I still regularly consult the wiki though.) The turning point for me that made the game a lot more fun was realizing I could modify the config to set a population cap. If you only every allow 10-20 dwarves you never feel like you're rushing to meet everyones needs and handle new members of your fort all while keeping everyone happy. You can focus on the story and relationships unfolding while meeting every dwarfs individual needs. Suddenly the game is fun again. I also enjoy playing small forts and never breaching into the caverns below. Without the caverns performance stays high. That's mostly a limitation of my computer though.